I'm BACCCCCKKKK!

Surprise, surprise, surprise!  I've been one busy little person what with canning, the holidays, work and being sick for the past 2 1/2 weeks with this cold crap.  Yes I said crap and I'm still feeling a little bit like that LOL.

We got our yearly 1/2 beef and 1/2 a pig this year to go with it so I was trying to clean out our freezer as much as possible (read empty completely).  Surprisingly with all that meat I got it fit into our upright freezer and stashed the bacon in our little freezer.  Boy it was close!  Don't think we will do that again.  At least we could space it out so I don't have such a problem stowing it away.  So we have a lot of meat, a lot.  It should last us a little over a year.  The only problem is they cut the roasts a little too big for us so when I made a beef roast the other day we had to keep eating it and eating it and eating it.  It was huge!  I just put in some salt and pepper and some bay leaves and cooked in the slow cooker. Hubby made homemade noodles to go with it.  Yum.  Then I made some barbequed beef sandwiches today and still I had some left over so I guess I'll be using the rest in a soup of some sort.

So since I cleaned out my freezer I had all these tomatoes, peppers, berries and beef bones (which really take up room in the freezer).  I canned berry jelly since I had boysenberries, blueberries and raspberries; pepper relish; tomato soup and beef broth.  And I had gotten 10 pounds of pig fat to make lard.  I did all that in one week...boy was I tired and so we come to the fact that I got run down and got sick.  Was it worth it?  You betcha cause now we have a whole lot of food stored up.

I wasn't in the holiday mood this year so I didn't even put up our tree.  I did decorate our fireplace mantle and put up the wreath on the front door but that is as festive as I got this year.  But it did save me from having to put all that stuff away too.  It didn't lessen in any way our Christmas though.  We still had our presents to open on Christmas day and we got some Christmas cards too.  Not as many as I sent out but I think it's because it is getting so expensive to mail them.  Postage is going up again in a couple of weeks so I hear.  Hubby got me just what I wanted this year too!  I got an immersion blender (so much easier to do soups with) and a spice grinder which will be nice to grind all those spices and herbs I'm going to be growing this year (maybe LOL).  Hubby was shocked I got him so much but why not, he's worth it.  I got him an old fashioned straight razor shaving kit with everything included except for a sharpening stone which I'll get him later.  He tried it the first time and cut himself all to heck...Geez-Louise.  He said I need your help I cut myself.  I went running and had to put cotton balls and band-aids on each side of his face.  Since he's on blood thinners he bleeds a lot when he gets cut.  He did eventually stop bleeding.  I think a styptic pen is on order for him.  Now he says he scared of it...and hasn't tried to use it again yet.  I think he was holding it wrong and trying to go too fast.  I think he needs to practice.   Cause if I have to put cotton balls and band-aids on him again I'll bust out laughing, he looked really funny.  He even laughed about it.  Looked like a poor man's Santa or  maybe a really weird looking chipmunk :)  I also got him a weather thingy.  It's a tube that is supposed to tell you the weather a couple of days ahead of time.  Don't know if it works yet.  He left it in the package so we can take it to the cabin.  I got him a CD of info on solar power from Mother Earth News and a puzzle.  He said he owed me something else and has decided to get me another gun...not really what I was looking for really LOL.  It will be a revolver cause I really don't like the way the pistol handles that I already have.  I think it will give me more control but we'll see.

The chickens have stopped laying...completely.  No eggs since November.  We have been getting eggs when we go up to the cabin but it's not the same and they don't taste as good as ours were.  I'm still hoping that they will start laying a few when it warms up.  We got a ton of seed catalogs last week.  I love looking through them although I don't think I need any more seeds right now.  Since the world didn't end, I guess I can spend more money on plants and seeds ;)

Hope you had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Denise

Finished knitted items...

My new cardigan I completed.  Loved the yarn.  It is RY Luxury Cotton DK 50% cotton, 45% viscose and 5% silk #263 which is a beigey brown.  So soft and I loved the pattern as well.  It has decreases along the front cable to define the waist.  I used two different sized buttons because when I went to the dreaded Wal-Mart I picked up three cards with one being smaller than the other two so decided to see if I had any buttons in my stash that would work better for the smaller ones and I did!  They are clear glass and are a little bit bigger than the others but they work and I like it so that's all that matters ;)  Oh and the pattern came from an old Creative Knitting Mag.

This is a tank top.  I had some yarn (Cascade Yarns Rio 75.9% cotton, 24.1% viscose in color #244) and couldnt find a decent pattern so I just made the pattern up.  I have the pattern written down and will put it up on the blog here in a few weeks after I write it out from my short hand...lol.  The yarn was a worsted weight and much prettier in person.

A little lacy vest done in Jo Sharp's Alpaca Silk Georgette 40% Alpaca, 40% Merino and 20% Silk in #755 Musk.  Now this pattern was a little strange as the lace pattern is not only on the front but on the back as well.  The pattern is from Nashua Handknits Seashore Spring and Summer 2007 book.   All the yarn above came from the WEBS yarn site. 

Here is a pic of my new basket I ordered from Southern Plate.  It is commemorating their 2nd anniversary and has dividers in it for your silverwareand plates in the back.  It's an American Traditions hard maple basket made in Ohio and they use vegetable dyes.  They are really well made and were a lot cheaper than Longerberger baskets which if you have any of those you know what I am talking about.

Will post more later!

Denise